INTRODUCTION
Servius, the fifth-century commentator on Vergil, quotes Fronto for one or two usages, but his quotations cannot be identified with any passages in our extant letters. A contemporary grammarian, Charisius,[1] however, undoubtedly quotes from Fronto's letters as we have them. P. Consentius, another grammarian of the same period, quotes a sentence referring to Rheims, which may very possibly come from a lost letter to Victorinus. Niebuhr thought that Sidonius Apollinaris, a learned and eloquent bishop of the fifth century, imitated Fronto here and there.
The last author to refer to Fronto was John of Salisbury in the twelfth century. He quotes an obscure remark of his concerning Seneca, that "he was so successful in abolishing error that he seemed almost to create again an age of gold and call down the Gods from heaven to live among men." But Fronto, as we know him, has no word of praise for Seneca.
We cannot tell who made and published this collection of letters, but it is impossible to subscribe to the view of Mommsen that it was Fronto himself.[2] Several letters are misplaced: one that was certainly to the Emperor with his answer appears under the heading Ad M. Caesarem; and some that are related to one another are widely separated.
